In 2018, my 40+ Women’s team advanced to the USTA League National Championships. However, it very nearly didn’t happen. The Texas Sectional Championships were washed out after two days of partial play that year. From that experience, I somewhat understand how USTA Texas decides which teams advance to Nationals, or at least how they did so in the past. This episode illustrates why it is probably a good idea for each Section to publish detailed procedures for handling advancement from canceled or shortened Championships.
I previously touched on this topic in “A Crazy Court Drying Story,” which described one of the most absurd things I have ever encountered on a tennis court. During one of the rain delays at the 2018 40+ Sectionals, I was accosted by a woman who attempted to prevent me from using a “Rain Shuttle” court drying device. This was the first —and only— time I remember being discouraged from helping out with a wet court during a scheduled event.
The woman claimed the squeegee I had picked up was “broken.” It wasn’t, and I played off her interference by telling her I wanted to try it anyway. She doubled down on the prohibition, tacking on, “I am from the Section Office.” I ignored that bizarre and irrelevant additional information and successfully used it against a puddle as she stomped away.
I guess there is a chance that I was risking a code violation and possible suspension points for not following the directions of officials on site if she was authorized to act in that capacity. However, she wasn’t wearing any visible indication that she was part of the staff for the event and is not one of the staffers I know. Claiming to be with the Section Office does not necessarily make that a fact, and she had already lost credibility with me for discouraging people from drying courts on the justification that a perfectly good drying implement was broken.
I can think of very few instances when it is appropriate to prohibit someone from drying a tennis court. One of these would be lightning. Another would be if the drying activity itself would potentially damage the surface. (“Please put the flame thrower away!”) The third is if there was a safety concern. None of those were in play in this situation.
This episode begs the question of why anyone would actively discourage people from drying courts at a USTA Sectional Championship. I was particularly annoyed over the other teams in our flight dragging their heels and not pitching in when potential windows of opportunity to play occurred. In retrospect, I can’t help but wonder if those teams were strategically leaning into inside knowledge that if the event were washed out, the USTA Texas Section Office would conduct a lottery to determine which team advanced to Nationals. That is ultimately what occurred, albeit with two notable exceptions.
The Trophy Husband was captaining a team at that Sectional Championship. It was a four-team single round-robin played at the Sonterra Club, which is much further north than the other sites. Under the rain-shortened format, they were able to complete all the matches. The final deluge of the weekend started as they were posing with their Sectional Champions towels.
My team was in a five-team single-round robin. Curiously enough, when I look at those standings in TennisLink, I find that some completed matches were not reflected in the final standings. For example, My Dallas team played and defeated Austin on Saturday yet no results are posted for that match. As I recall, we had not mathematically clinched as we took the court against Northeast Texas (NETX) on Sunday afternoon, but we would have had to lose every single match for any other team to have a shot to overtake us.
For my match, we played exactly one point. Both teams worked collaboratively to make it happen by rushing through the warmup. Additionally, we played that point on an already well-puddled court. As we retreated back into the pro shop, the NETX captain informed us that one of her singles lines had resigned from her match and was heading home. With that, My Dallas team had mathematically clinched the berth to the National Championships.
My doubles partner and I also immediately resigned from our match because she needed it to count as her third match for eligibility for Nationals. She hadn’t been able to play earlier in the weekend due to a personal commitment. Since we weren’t sure if a suspended match would count, defaulting that line to officially terminate the match seemed prudent. A short time later, all remaining matches were suspended and we all headed home.
The following Monday, it was announced that a drawing would be conducted at the Section office to determine which teams were to advance to the National Championships. The Trophy Husband immediately contacted the Dallas League Coordinator to protest a drawing in his division since it had been completed. Once you pose with the Sectional Championship towels, you’re heading to Nationals. Their division was excluded from the drawing.
My team’s situation was less clear. While we had mathematically clinched, it wasn’t officially over. We also appealed to the Dallas League Coordinator, and she successfully lobbied the Texas Section Office to send us to the National Championships without a drawing. While I certainly think that was the right decision, Texas does not seem to have any published criteria that justifies it.
I know of two players who were livid that their teams did not participate in a drawing. Additionally, some people had angst due to a lack of transparency when it was conducted at the Section Office. While I am told that the drawing was “witnessed,” who served in that capacity wasn’t shared at the player level. The modern solution would be to set up a live stream and let the teams watch for themselves.
As I mentioned yesterday, the USTA League Championship Procedures for the Southern Section includes a full page of how advancement is determined at canceled events. It is over a page long and covers scenarios for various formats of play and the completion status. Every Section should have something like that on a public-facing web page.
Next weekend, we will examine how the authority to shorten formats and select the teams to advance to Sectionals is delegated — or not — to local league coordinators. Spoiler alert! It gets even stickier from here.
- 2025 USTA League National Regulations, USTA Resource Document, April 14, 2024.
- 2024 USTA League National Championships Handbook, USTA Published Document, viewed September 11, 2025.
- 2024 USTA Southern Championship Procedures, USTA Southern Published Document, viewed September 13, 2024.
